Kernels get win on 'Jackie Robinson Day'

CEDAR RAPIDS - Art Pennington claims he used to be able to throw a baseball completely of a stadium. But that was a long time ago, and “Superman” chose to underhand his first pitch before last night's Cedar Rapids Kernels' 8-6 win over Peoria.

“Shoot, I'm 86 years old,” explained Pennington.

The Cedar Rapidian and former Negro League star took part in a local celebration of “Jackie Robinson Day” at Veterans Memorial Stadium. It was 63 years ago Thursday when Robinson broke baseball's color barrier.

“It's a good day to celebrate Jackie Robinson,” Pennington said. “Because he went through hell. And I did, too.”

Pennington never got the opportunity to play in the majors, spending time playing in places like Mexico and the Dominican Republic. He finished his career in 1959 at the age of 36 and settled in Cedar Rapids after playing with the city's minor league team in the old Three-I League.

“Superman” was asked about the dwindling number of African-American baseball players. Only seven percent of major leaguers this season are black.

“It's because of all the foreign ballplayers that are coming over,” Pennington said. “I played with all these guys' daddies over in Caracas, Santo Domingo, Cuba and all those places ... They had better do something. A lot of these kids are playing basketball now.

“I talked to some (local) kids yesterday, and they told me they were going to try out (for teams). That's where the money is. I told them about (Alex) Rodriguez making 25 million a year. I said ‘So you'd better go play some ball.'”

The Kernels (4-4) inched back to .500 with the help of a Peoria club that hasn't played a home game, yet. The Chiefs committed four errors, walked seven Kernels and ran themselves out of a potential ninth-inning rally.

Patrick Corbin (2-0) threw seven effective innings for the win. Luis Jimenez had three hits and three runs, and Matt Long a clean steal of home plate.

Here's video of Art Pennington throwing out the first pitch: